Nintendo of America apologized for excluding same-sex relationships in its upcoming simulator Tomodachi Life. The game is scheduled to be released for the Nintendo 3DS June 6.

According to a statement (shown below), Nintendo will be unable to to include same-sex relationships by the time the game hits stores. Nintendo officials also said that they would not be able to rectify to the situation through a post-launch patch.

The remarkable Strike Suit annihilates a barrage of torpedoes. (Provided by Born Ready Games)

The beautiful visuals of Born Ready Games’ sci-fi flight simulator Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut invoke excitement. After taking a couple tours in the cockpit, however, the game meets that excitement with mediocrity.

Strike Suit Zero is a two-campaign game that fuses the intense button-mashing of an arcade-style space shooter with the realism of a flight simulator.

Set in the year 2299, Strike Suit Zero picks up in the aftermath of Earth’s race to the final frontier. The people of Earth receive a mysterious signal from outer space, instructing humans on how to build better ships. Shortly after, humanity rushes into the vast reaches of outer space harnessing the power interstellar travel. The campaign revolves around the resulting fallout that escalates over time between humans from Earth and humans born on Earth’s colonies. After a short tutorial mission, players are given command of a unique fighter that has the ability to transform into a mech, the Strike Suit.

Soccer is one of six competitions in the upcoming Kinect Sports Rivals

Xbox One’s Kinect Sports Rivals doesn’t hit store shelves until April 8, but the Microsoft Store in Park Meadows is giving folks a chance to play it before then — not to mention an opportunity to meet two Denver Broncos in the process.

In celebration of the game’s release, the store will hold events on April 5, 6, 8, 12 and 13. Broncos’ defensive lineman Malik Johnson and safety Duke Ihenacho will be at the store from 1 p.m. to 3 on Saturday, April 5 for autographs and photos.

Made by Rareware games, Kinect Sports Rivals is the fourth installment in series but the first to use the Xbox One’s improved camera for the Kinect, which works with voice and motion-activated commands. Rareware’s Nick Burton said the new Kinect has the ability to understand two people speaking at once — in light or in complete darkness. He said the original Kinect tracks 20 joints on two people; the new version can track 25 joints on six bodies.

A little help goes a long way in exploring the intimidatingly vast world of Grand Theft Auto 5.

By any mobile, console, PC, or dystopian nightmare virtual reality standard, Grand Theft Auto V is a groundbreaking game. Its open-world map is bigger than all previous Grand Theft Auto games combined, and about three times larger than Rockstar Games’ huge western playground in Red Dead Redemption.

Since its release last Tuesday, gamers have been luxuriating in not just the sheer number of structured and achievement-grabbing things they can do, but the more unstructured time-passers. There are the impromptu raids and shooting sprees, races, chases, sports and all manner of fool’s errands for which the GTA series has become famous. But there’s also a new depth of character, weapons and vehicles customizations.

Of course, it’s considered a sin in hardcore gaming to use a guidebook, play anything on “easy,” or call up any trophy-killing cheats. Games have been getting easier over the years, so why can’t we just trust the designers’ visions? Etcetera.

True as that may be, getting a leg up on games is a time-honored tradition. What else is modding all about? (Skyrim is perhaps the most modded game ever, and I’ll bet all my dust-gathering NES cartridges that casual gamers aren’t the ones writing code to up-res textures or morph broadswords into lightsabers.)

Really, this is what gaming is at heart — testing the limits of constructed world and being rewarded or punished for how well you do in it. GTAV pretty much dares us to see if we can break it.

Users who downloaded an illegal copy of Game Dev Tycoon received a message in the game saying that many players are illegally downloading their game.

When Greenheart Games released Game Dev Tycoon yesterday, it took a different approach to combating piracy. The developers released a cracked version of the game on a BitTorrent site — except they added code that made illegal downloading part of their game.

The business simulation game lets players create a video game development company in the 1980s and work toward becoming a global giant in the industry. Players who downloaded Game Dev Tycoon through BitTorrent were punished in the game with software piracy eating away at their profits.

From Patrick Klug of Greenheart Games:

The cracked version is nearly identical to the real thing except for one detail. Initially we thought about telling them their copy is an illegal copy, but instead we didn’t want to pass up the unique opportunity of holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers. So, as players spend a few hours playing and growing their own game dev company, they will start to see the following message (pictured above), styled like any other in-game message.

There are a number of PC games from my childhood for which I have wanted a sequel or a remake: Master of Magic (still one of my favorite turn-based strategies ever), M.U.D.S. – Mean Ugly Dirty Sport (takes fantasy football to a whole new level), Road Rash (because it’s fun whipping computer-generated bikers with a chain) and SimCity.

It’s been 10 years since there’s been an installment from Will Wright’s classic series – admittedly, expectations were high for the city-building simulation.

Yes, the servers were overloaded and it was incredibly difficult to log in and play the first week (and even at times now). Yes, it’s yet another always-online digital rights management (always-on DRM) gaffe. Yes, there are more than 1,700 one-star reviews on Amazon, mainly due to the fact that gamers couldn’t get in to play.

SimCity has a straightforward concept: Build a city, watch it grow and solve problems as they arise. Or destroy it — you know, whatever floats your boat. But this formula has a proven track record and the 2013 version is no exception.

Plain and simple, the game is fun and addictive when it works. At least, at first.

Ten years is a long time in any instance. But as many parents can attest, it is an especially significant age for ones child to reach without being strangled.

So as my son’s tenth birthday approached, his mother and I reasoned we should do something special to celebrate the landmark. First was laying the groundwork for deceit.

We casually brought up what he might want to do for his birthday. He surprisingly wasn’t interested in doing much more than having some family and friends to the house.

Shortly after, we told him that because his birthday is only ten days before Christmas, sadly, most of his family members were already preoccupied with holiday plans and presented an option of doing something perhaps after the holidays.

He was slightly upset, but we reassured him with promises of still having a fun birthday weekend.

Once the weekend arrived, we kept him busy with a variety of small, but fun activities. When Sunday arrived, he seemed a little down, so I asked if he’d like to go “mess around” by doing some shopping, getting some lunch, etc.

About an hour into our excursion, I made an excuse to stop by the house.

If you’ve always wanted to perform surgery with one very uncoordinated hand Surgeon Simulator 2013 is the game for you.

In a nutshell, Surgeon Simulator is QWOP for 2013. It’s incredibly difficult to control, but that’s the fun. Four members of Bossa Studios created the game for their Global Game Jam 2013 entry.

From Bossa Studios UK:

You are Nigel Burke… an ordinary guy, with no outstanding skills. Somehow forced to perform a heart transplant, using any tools available. Complete the operation in the quickest time possible, with minimal blood loss! Features Revolutionary 1 to 1 finger manipulation control system Realistic surgical tool physics. Professional voice acting. Thumping soundtrack. This is, Surgeon Simulator 2013.

Beer pong, keggers and streaking. Yep, that about sums up college. (Electronic Arts)

Electronic Arts unveiled a slew of new add-ons for The Sims 3 series in 2013, allowing players to explore college life and a tropical environment.

The Sims 3 University Life, slated for a March 5 release, will let players explore college life, much like The Sims 2 University did for the previous installment of the series. The expansion creates a new age for young adult to elder Sims to explore. Check out the trailer below.

The Sims 3 Island Paradise, slated for a June release, brings adventure and exploration on a tropical paradise. Suns can live in fully customizable houseboats and search for islands and treasure, or manage resorts.

There is also another expansion slated for the fall where players can have their Sims travel forward into the future. Details for this game will be unveiled later this year.

A&E reporter John Wenzel has covered a variety of topics for The Denver Post over the years, including video games, comedy, music and the fine arts. He's been playing and loving video games since his dad brought home a sweet ColecoVision in 1983. Catch him on PSN as beardsandgum.

Hugh got his start writing for the Cheyenne and Woodmen Edition newspapers in Colorado Springs. In 2011 he moved to Denver where he has written for Denver Urban Spectrum and Colorado Community Media’s Wheat Ridge Transcript. Hugh joined The Denver Post in 2014 as an editorial assistant.

Bryan Moore joined The Denver Post sports department in 1997 and has worked in many phases of producing the daily sports section ever since, specifically focusing on coverage of the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and college football and basketball.